Please enjoy the new photos of Mosha, taken on February 12, 2010 by a member of Collecting Smiles Club.

Mosha (photo credit: Collecting Smiles Club)

Mosha (which means Star in the Karin language) is a 3-year old Asian Elephant at the Friends of the Asian Elephant (FAE) Elephant Hospital. When she was 7-months old, Mosha stepped on a landmine along the Thai-Burma border. Her owner donated her to FAE, where Soraida Salwala and her staff could rehabilitate and care for her.

Mosha, with chalk on her amputated leg, which helps reduce the irritation of wearing her prosthetic leg. (photo credit: Collecting Smile Club)

When we first met Mosha in 2007, she was a curious 2-year old, who wobbled on three legs.  When we returned in August 2009, Producer/Director Windy Borman filmed Mosha receiving a prosthetic limb from the Prostheses Foundation for the documentary, The Eyes of Thailand.

Mosha with a member of the FAE staff at the Elephant Hospital. (photo credit: Collecting Smiles Club).

To see Mosha’s progression over the years, please click here.

Sincerely,

Windy Borman

Producer, Director and Writer, The Eyes of Thailand

Corinne Morton taught her 6th Grade Science classes in Ithaca, NY (USA) about the plight of elephants in the wild and captivity. Inspired by The Eyes of Thailand trailer, three students wrote poems about Thai elephants.  Below is the second poem:

A Thailand Elephant

by Jaina Swanhart age 11, Boynton Middle School

This elephant here
Was taken from his mother
Never got to roam free
And feel secure as elephants do with one another

Dreaming, hoping to find a way home
Away from his mom, it is so severe
Whips, chains and illegal logging
From a small soulful eye drops a swift tear

Shredded leg, what now?
Stepping on explosive mines
Standing on three feeling despair
It is only a matter of time

In his captivity a lady looks
Kids around him, he’s being teased
Runs and runs to fine Mahout
She thinks, can I buy him please?

She’s rescues him, finally free
Knowing where to take him
He follows her lead
To the elephant hospital, to a new limb

Eating with other elephants
Here he finds his mother
Walking, talking, catching up
A feeling like no other

There’s a devoted vet
He loves and cherishes her
Giving him a new hope in life
He wishes others fate were similar

Please tune in next week for the third poem…

-Windy Borman

Producer, Director and Writer, The Eyes of Thailand